Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Former all star Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz will be teeing it up on the Nationwide Tour on April 28th. He accepted a sponsor's exemption to play in the South Georgia Classic at Kinderlou Forest Golf Club.

"I'm not afraid to fail but failure is right there," said Smoltz. "I know it's not easy. I just want to see what it's like. I want to know what my body feels like. I want to know if that tension creeps up."

Smoltz is a scratch player and his game has been vouched for by Tiger Woods, who says he brings a great deal of tenacity to his golf game.

It will be very interesting to see how Smoltz handles his nerves and the pressures of tournament golf.

The Tim Tebow Foundation Celebrity Golf Classic will be held May 7th at Dye's Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass in Florida. The tournament will feature Tebow, NFL Pro Bowlers Adrian Peterson, Fred Taylor, Elvis Dumervil, David Garrard, and Jason Taylor, as well as several well known Florida Gators. The tournament will raise money for youth around the world with net proceeds going to the Tim Tebow Foundation and The First Tee.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Luke Donald of England hits from the sand on the 17th hole during a playoff in the final round of The Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)The Zurich Classic of New Orleans kicks off Thursday at the TPC Louisiana with Jason Bohn as the defending champion. Luke Donald, current world #3, and Nick Watney, winner of the tournament in 2007, come in as the betting favorites to win.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Brandt Snedeker celebrates after defeating Luke Donald in a playoff on the 18th hole during the final round of The Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Brandt Snedeker came out blazing Sunday with a front nine 30, finished with a 7-under 64, and then beat Luke Donald on the third playoff hole to win the Heritage. Snedeker earned his second career PGA Tour victory and moved into the top ten of the Fed Ex Point Standings.

Friday, April 22, 2011

The new book Golf List Mania! by authors Leonard Shapiro and Ed Sherman is now available. Shapiro, with 40 years of sports writing experience with the Washington Post, and Sherman, with 27 years as a sports writer with the Chicago Tribune, have combined to compile a variety of both humorous and creative golf lists and rankings. The book also includes a foreword by everyone's favorite golf quote analyst, Jim Nantz.

I was under the impression that players were already fined for these actions and according to rumors, Woods has been fined the most of any player in PGA Tour history. This warnings just adds that the fines will be made public.

"These guys are role models and we are looking for them to behave as well as possible on the course," said R & A chief Peter Dawson.

During that tournament, Tiger Woods missed the first fairway, lost his ball, and ended up with a triple bogey. Jerry Kelly had a bigger problem with the hole, and finished with an 11. Overall, less than 30% of drives hit the first fairway that year. With that in mind, the first fairway will be given twelve additional yards in width for 2011.

The 17th and 18th fairways will be given extra width as well, making the finishing stretch a bit easier for the players. Overall, the course will be lengthened by 100 yards with the biggest change coming at the fourth hole, which will go from a 497 yard par-5 to a 495 yard par-4, making the course a par 70, not 71.

No word has been given on whether or not anything will be changed with the infamous fairway bunker at the fourth.

Notes:
Baddely won at Harbor Town in 2006 and has a win with three top 10 finishes this season. Jason Day is coming off a runner up finish at the Masters which should give him a great deal of confidence. Brendan Steele won last week at the Valero Texas Open but apparently the oddsmakers don't give him much of a chance of going back to back. Maybe John Daly got inspired last week with Kevin Na trying to break his "tin cup" records so he could play real well or maybe he'll try to create some new records. I believe Harbor Town does have a lot of water holes.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Matteo Manassero with the trophy after winning the Maybank Malaysian Open at Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club on April 17, 2011 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images)

Italian Matteo Manassero, age 17, won the Maybank Malaysian Open for his second professional win and vaulted into the top 35 in the world rankings. He becomes the third youngest player to have multiple wins behind Ryo Ishikawa and Chinnarat Phadungsil.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

A new book titled Golf List Mania by Leonard Shapiro and Ed Sherman is set to be released in May and they have put together a great collection of golf lists. I will be providing a review and more excerpts in the near future. Here is their list of some classic Caddyshack lines.

9) "You're a lot of woman, you know that? You want to make $14 the hard way?" -Al Czervik
8) "I tell you, I never saw dead people smoke before." - Al Czervik
7) "How about a Fresca?" - Judge Smails
6) "The last time I saw a mouth like that, it had a hook in it." - Al Czervik
5) "I bet you've got a lot of nice ties....You want to tie me up with some of your ties, Ty?" - Lacy Underall
4) "I'm having a little party at the Yacht Club next Sunday. Christening my new sloop. Do you have any plans? How would you like to mow my lawn?" - Judge Smails
3) "This is the worst looking hat I ever saw. You buy a hat like this, I bet you get a free bowl of soup with it." -Al Czervik
2) "I was born to love you. I was born to lick your face. I was born to rub you. But you were born to rub me first." - Ty Webb
1) "Hey baby, you're all right. You must have been something before electricity." - Al Czervik

Thursday, April 14, 2011

He hit his tee shot into the woods, deemed it unplayable, went back to the tee, hit another tee shot into the woods, chipped a shot off a tree which bounced backwards and hit him resulting in a penalty stroke, hit countless more chips, finally got it out of the trees, hit an iron to the green, and eventually made a five footer for 16.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

After the Masters, it's a bit hard to get fired up for the Valero Texas Open, but it will be interesting to see if the players who contended at Augusta can follow it up this week. Adam Scott is the defending champion and did finish runner up last week so he should be one to watch.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

"I don't think he'll [Tiger Woods] finish in the top five. The shots he was hitting at Doral were very inconsistent. You can't afford to hit shots like that on this golf course [Augusta National] and get away with it. I don't think you want to rely on your short game that much around this place."

Another stellar prediction by Poulter. Almost as good as this one when he said the golf world would come down to just him and Tiger.

Golf channel analyst Brandel Chamblee gets paid to provide his opinions, all of which seem to be either wrong, or include him constantly flip-floping.

He has now joined sports personalities Chris Berman and Dick Vitale for people I have to turn the mute button on for. In the brief segments I did actually listen to him during Masters week, I was not surprised to hear the same old story.

First, he has been one of the biggest critics of Tiger Wood's swing changes and Sean Foley's teaching methods for the past nine months. He has repeated over and over that Woods is working on the wrong things and he won't find success with this new method.

After Wood's 66 Friday at the Masters, Chamblee all of a sudden states that Tiger looked to be in "complete control of his game," especially with his putting, and that he was looking like the Woods of old. As we know, Woods full swing looked great while his putting was slightly off.

The point is Chamblee has grilled Tiger for nearly a year saying that his swing changes will never work, but now all of a sudden he praises Woods for his improvement.

As for his opinions on Phil Mickelson, Chamblee said that although Lefty had a tough week at the Masters, he will certainly have many more years of success at Augusta and will most likely win it again. Then, literally less than one minute later, when speaking of Mickelson's arthritis, he said Phil will not be able to have much success over the next decade because of the condition. Huh? What? Chamblee, you just said the exact opposite thing one minute ago.

He then turned into Dr. Chamblee, giving his diagnosis for Phil's arthritis and describing how it will be treated, and the difficulty the doctors will have in changing treatment programs for him as the disease changes. Never knew Chamblee went to medical school. By the way, Mickelson did shoot 63-65 on the weekend two weeks ago to win in Houston so the doctors must be doing well so far.

The bottom line is Chamblee is the biggest moron on golf television.

7/26/2013 UPDATE: Tiger Woods has won four times in 2013 and is now number one in the world. Phil Mickelson has just won his 5th major championship and is now number two in the world. Unfortunately, Chamblee is still talking on the golf channel.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Charl Schwartzel of South Africa lines up a putt on the sixth green during the final round of the 2011 Masters. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)Schwartzel became the 75th Masters champion Sunday with a final round 66 which included a bump and run chip-in from 60 feet at the first hole, a hole-out eagle on number three, and four consecutive birdies to end his round. He played the best down the stretch to defeat Adam Scott and Jason Day by two strokes to earn his first green jacket. Charl

"Just an exciting day," Schwartzel said. "So many roars, and that atmosphere out there was just incredible. A phenomenal day."

Scores by round: 69,71,68,66 -14

Totals:Eagles: 2Birdies: 17Pars: 46Bogeys: 7

Greens in Regulation: 49 / 72Putts per hole: 1.56 (2nd)

Prize Money: $1.35 millionFed Ex Points: 600

With the win, he earns a lifetime exemption into the Masters, a five year exemption on the PGA Tour, as well as five year exemptions into the U.S. Open, British Open, PGA Championship, and the Player's Championship.

Charl Schwartzel of South Africa hits his tee shot on the second hole during the final round of the 2011 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 10, 2011 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland hits a tee shot on the seventh hole during the third round of the 2011 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 9, 2011 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

McILroy, at age 21, is attempting to become the youngest winner of the Masters since Tiger Woods in 1997. He took advantage of perfect conditions on day one to become the youngest first round leader in Master's history.

"I trusted everything," he said. "I trusted where I wanted to hit the ball. That's the key around here. With some of these pins, you can get tentative and try to guide it in there. You just have to pick your targets and trust your swing. I was very happy with the way I did that."

Quiros, the longest driver on tour, shot his lowest round at the Masters by 10 shots.

Tiger Woods shot an opening round 71 Thursday at the Masters and is currently six shots back of leader Rory McILroy, who opened with a 65. Woods shot a front nine 35 with a birdie at six, and an even par 36 on the back nine with bogeys at 10 and 11 before rebounding with birdies at 13 and 14.

Woods nearly holed out his third shot at the par-5 15th for eagle but had to settle for par after missing a 10 footer for his birdie. On 17, after hitting his approach shot over the green from the trees, he played a magnificent flop shot, stopping the ball just two feet from the hole and saved his par. At the 18th, he stuck his approach shot to 10 feet, but missed the putt after over-reading the break.

"I hit a lot of beautiful putts today," Woods said after the round to ESPN. "Realistically, I could of had a 68 or 69."

Asked if he felt confident with his swing changes, he replied, "Absolutely. This is a major championship. It's go time. I'm only six shots off the lead."

This is a decent start for Woods because as the saying goes, you can't win the Masters after the first round, but you can lose it. A 71 puts him in a good position, just six shots off the current lead heading into Friday.